The seventh playoff series between Hershey and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton comes down to a seventh game as the Bears host the Penguins this evening for the right to play for the Eastern Conference championship… Wilkes-Barre scored four goals in the first period en route to a 6-2 win in Game 6 on Friday night… Tom Kostopoulos tied a franchise playoff record with five points (1g, 4a), and combined with linemates Carter Rowney (2g, 1a) and Jake Guentzel (1g, 2a) for 11 points on the night… Kostopoulos (5-7-12) jumped from a tie for 27th into 20th place on the AHL’s all-time postseason scoring list (72 points)… Guentzel (5-9-14) now leads the AHL in assists and points during the 2016 playoffs… Will O’Neill (1-3-4) scored for the Penguins in Game 6, his first goal since netting the overtime winner on Mar. 20 at Hershey… Casey DeSmith (5-3, 2.43, .923) stopped 24 of 26 shots and snapped a personal three-game losing streak… Zach Sill (2-3-5) had a goal for Hershey on Friday, his fourth point in the last two games… Justin Peters (6-4, 1.79, .934) allowed four goals on 12 shots in the first period before Dan Ellis played the rest of the way, his first action since Game 1 of the Bears’ first-round series with Portland… Hershey is 6-1 this postseason when leading scorer Jakub Vrana (4-5-9) records a point, 0-4 when he does not… Hershey is 4-for-33 on the power play (12.1 percent) in the series; Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is 5-for-32 (15.6 percent)… Tonight is the 37th Calder Cup Playoff game between the Bears and Penguins; the teams have split the previous 36 meetings, 18-18… They have also split their 18 head-to-head meetings this season, nine wins apiece, with the team scoring the game’s first goal going 18-0… Hershey won a Game 7 over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in 2009, getting 24 saves from Michal Neuvirth in a 3-0 victory… Hershey is 8-8 all-time in Game 7’s, tied with the Rochester Americans (8-3) for the most Game 7 wins ever… Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is 6-2 in Game 7’s, including 3-2 on the road… The Bears are going the distance in consecutive series in the same postseason for the first time since 1997 (def. Philadelphia, def. Springfield)… Tonight will be the 599th postseason game in Bears history (322-276, .538).

Game 7 History Hershey and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton meet tonight in the 165th winner-take-all game and the 91st Game 7 in Calder Cup Playoff history… Home teams are 50-40 (.556) all-time in Game 7’s… Since 1992, teams are 48-13 (.787) in Game 7’s when scoring first… Seventeen Game 7’s have gone to overtime, the last being Hamilton’s triple-overtime win over Manitoba in 2011… This is the 26th consecutive AHL postseason with at least one Game 7.

#LEvsGR: Tyler Bertuzzi had a hat trick, Andreas Athanasiou tallied a goal and two assists and Jared Coreau made 35 saves in his first start of the postseason, adding up to a 6-1 Grand Rapids win in Game 5 of the Central Division Finals last night… Despite back-to-back losses, Lake Erie still leads the best-of-seven series, three games to two, with Game 6 on tap for Monday in Grand Rapids.

#ONTvsSD: Ontario became the first team to advance to the 2016 conference finals, eliminating San Diego with a 2-1 win in Game 5 last night… Joel Lowry and Justin Auger scored for the Reign, who will host Lake Erie or Grand Rapids in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals next Saturday, May 21.

Working Overtime There have been 10 overtime games played in the 2016 Calder Cup Playoffs so far… Home teams are 6-4:

Alumni Watch At the 2016 IIHF World Championships in Russia yesterday, Janos Vas (Iowa, 2005-08) scored two shorthanded goals and Gergo Nagy (Chicago, 2013-15) added a goal as Hungary defeated Belarus, 5-2, for the country’s first win at the World Championships since 1939… 2016 AHL All-Star Esa Lindell, who played 73 AHL games with Texas in 2015-16, scored for Finland in a 3-1 win over France… 2013 Calder Cup champion and two-time AHL All-Star Gustav Nyquist scored his sixth goal of the tournament and 2015 AHL All-Star Jacob Markstrom made 23 saves as Sweden defeated Norway, 3-2… 2011 Calder Cup champion Kaspars Daugavins scored for Latvia in a 2-1 win over Kazakhstan.

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